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Cut to prisoners’ pay prompts court fight against federal government

A group of Canadian federal inmates has launched a court challenge against Correctional Service Canada's decision to cut pay for its prisoners.

As public safety minister in 2012, Vic Toews said cuts to prisoners' work pay would “increase offenders’ accountability” by covering the costs of their incarceration. (Adrian Wyld / THE CANADIAN PRESS file photo)

Claiming their Charter rights were violated, a group of federal inmates is challenging a decision by Correctional Service Canada that cut their prison work pay.

In an application to Federal Court brought forward recently by four inmates at Collins Bay Institution in Kingston, the prisoners are seeking, through judicial review, to quash Correctional Service Canada’s decisions in October 2013 that slashed one form of pay for prisoners and eliminated another.

Under CORCAN, a special agency within the Correctional Service Canada, federal inmates make such items as textiles, furniture, chairs and printing work, which are all for sale.

Pay received for this type of work was on average about $1.40 per hour, after deductions for food and housing. The payment has been eliminated, though the work continues, says Ottawa area lawyer Todd Sloan, who is representing the four inmates.

As a result many federal inmates are now working for nothing, says Sloan.

“Some of those (inmates) who would otherwise have refused, have been warned by (Corrections) authorities that failure to work could be considered a failure to meet the terms of their correctional plan, which could affect parole possibilities and in some cases could result in transfer to higher security,” Sloan added.

In fiscal year 2013-14, the year that the pay was eliminated, 4,405 offenders participated in CORCAN shops, the Corrections service says. The government says that given the demand to participate there is no need or reason to provide the payments.

There are about 15,000 federal inmates in prison on any given day.

Under a separate program, inmates are still paid for work that includes landscaping, kitchen duties, cleaning, and clerical functions. But that pay has been reduced.

Most of the prisoners doing this work saw their pay slashed in 2013 from an average $3 a day to about $2 a day. (Payment for full program participation reaches a maximum of $6.90 per day but drops to the $2 amount after the government deducts costs for items such as inmate accommodation, food and clothing).

This program pay dates back to 1981, and is part of government policies aimed at improving conditions in prisons, giving offenders fair pay and to assist with inmate reintegration into the outside community.

According to the application, the government instituted the 2013 pay cuts to further cover food and accommodation, and defray costs for the telephone system inmates use to contact their families.

In announcing the cuts in 2012, then federal Public Safety minister Vic Toews said “all too often, victims have told us they feel the criminals have all the rights. We’ve listened. And since taking office our government has been working hard to restore balance to our criminal justice system.’’

The cuts were instituted to “increase offenders’ accountability” for covering the costs related to their incarceration by charging them more for room and board, Toews said at the time.

Sloan, the lawyer, says his clients often use their pay to help support family members, pay for family visits and calls, save for their release from prison, and to pay for personal hygiene products, over the counter medications and other items that were previously subsidized.

The pay cuts have “exacerbated the significant hardship” caused to offenders and their families by the already low level of pay since the initiatives started in the early 1980s, the application argues.

Plus, before the cuts, the inmates were already being paid less for their services than the law mandates, the applicants charge.

The applicants and other inmates grieved the 2013 pay cuts under an offender complaints system — but the complaints were denied in late February of this year, the application says.

“The essence of the responses was that (Correctional Service Canada) had the right to make the decisions, and that (the decisions) had been made in compliance with law and policy,” the application states.

The court action is on behalf of all federal prisoners in Canada.

Correctional Service Canada said it would be inappropriate to comment on the court action given the matter is before the courts.

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